Record number of federal wage-and-hour lawsuits filed in FY12

A record number of federal wage-and-hour lawsuits were filed in FY12—7,064 for the year that ended June 30. According to attorney analysts at the Seyfarth Shaw law firm, that de­­bunks speculation that the number of Fair Labor Standards Act suits would taper off as the economy continued to lag. In fact, such lawsuits have in­­creased 33% since 2008.

The most common cases reaching the courts these days concern employee misclassification, off-the-clock work and miscalculation of overtime pay.